Brennan's Song
by Poly-chan
Summary: I was seven when I first met him. And neither of us knew how our lives would change from that moment on. AU, B&B.
1. First impression

**Title:** Brennan's Song  
><strong>Author: <strong>Poly  
><strong>Beta: <strong>Nina/Deia  
><strong>Category:<strong> Alternative Universe, B&B, Hodgela  
><strong>Warnings:<strong> light violence, reference to adult themes  
><strong>Rating:<strong> T / PG-13  
><strong>Summary:<strong> I was seven when I first met him. And neither of us knew how our lives would change from that moment on.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> The themes, characters and stories related to Bones belong to Fox and its creator, Hart Hanson. The songs quoted belong to the respective artists. I own nothing!

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><p><em><strong>1. First Impression<strong>_

_She said, I was seven and you were nine  
>I looked at you like the stars that shined<br>In the sky, the pretty lights_

My first impression of him had not been incredible. People usually say that the first impression is the one that remains, but I disagree. How could I have a good impression of my brother's classmate, when he was there just to annoy me?

I was seven years old, I was playing what was one of my favorite games at that time: To dig bones in the backyard.

"Those are not bones, they are painted sticks!" he told me. So smart.

"No, they are dinosaur bones! I just discovered them, and I'm going to be famous!"

He stared at me with that expression of disbelief, his brow furrowed.

"You're nuts, right?"

I stared at him back, mirroring his expression.

"I don't know what that means."

He sighed, like saying,_ Oh, it is not worth explaining_, and went back to the house to annoy my brother instead of annoying me.

Russ never had brought that boy to our house before, and Russ always brought friends to the house. But I wouldn't say that the boy was Russ`s _friend. _My brother told me earlier that he had entered our school last week, transferred from Philadelphia. Since he was new in the class, the teacher matched him with Russ on a paper. So both of them needed to meet after school to finish a paper and a presentation about the pilgrims.

Russ was bothered by the boy, complaining that he was an idiot, that he was just doing the paper with him because the teacher made him do that. And in the first time that I saw the boy, disdaining the game that had already became an obsession to me, I didn't take him seriously. But things would change a lot, and soon.

It was the end of the afternoon. I was looking for a book that I was reading but couldn't find. I was looking for it in my room when I remembered leaving it in the tree house earlier.

The tree house was my refuge. Dad, Russ and I had built it some time ago, on a big tree in the backyard. We called it the Lab because it was a place where we could bring things that we never brought home, like bugs and dirty stuff. In the Lab we could cut, paint, make a mess and even explode little things without Mom complaining about the mess. I also liked to go there just to read or lean on the opening that served as a window. I could see my room at one side and Russ's room at the other, since both windows overlooked the backyard.

I was going up the rope ladders when I heard a muffled sound. I stopped, staring at the dark backyard. We didn't have a dog, even with Russ saying that he wanted one every single time that he had the opportunity. The backyard had a fence, and I knew that my mom was in the kitchen making dinner, and my dad and Russ were upstairs, I could see the lights turned on in my brother's bedroom. Then I noticed that it seemed like the noise was coming from inside the lab.

Grabbing a thick stick that I found at the ground, I kept going up in the ladder. I wasn't the kind of girl to run away, even at that age. I reached the end of the ladder, gazing at the lab almost in darkness. At one corner near the window I saw a black mass that didn't move. I heard another muffled sound and finally recognize it as a sob.

I approached slowly, letting go of the stick. I seated near the ladder, but the boy closed in a little ball near the window didn't move. I touched his shoulder, awkwardly.

I really scared him. He moved away from me as if I would bite him. He went all the way to the opposite wall, pressing his back against it when he didn't have anywhere else to go. I could see the bright pearl color of tears on his face with the few light of beginning of night.

I was always clumsy with this kind of thing, never knowing how to act. I didn't have aunts or cousins and I wasn't social at school. The most of my experience with people my age came with the relationship with my brother. If my brother cried, my mom was around and she knew how to act. I didn't know how to act.

"What are you looking at, weird girl?" he said after some time, angry.

"I.. I.." I wanted to help. "I didn't know you were here, I'm sorry."

I began to go down the ladders.

"Wait."

I stopped, looking at him.

"This is your tree house... I should go."

I came back.

"We call it the Lab. If you want to stay, it's ok."

It looked like he was thinking about his choices. Then he dried the tears and took a look around.

"What do you usually do here?"

I stretched my arm to get the book I was looking for, at a spot near Russ's remote controlled toy car.

"The adventures of Tom Sawyer. Is it good?"

"I like it. Do you enjoy reading?"

He looked at the other side, not comfortable.

"I read the school books."

Suddenly everything got darker and I looked out the window. The light in Russ's room had been turned off.

"Did you and Russ finish the paper?"

He shrugged.

"We fought about who was going to write the title. He ripped the paper and we ended up not doing anything."

"Don't you need to go home? Your parents will be worried."

He shrugged again, but didn't answer me. He stared at the house with all the rooms dark. That's when I noticed something.

"Russ doesn't know that you are here! That's why you are hiding!"

He remained silent an didn't look at me.

"Is that why you were crying? Because the two of you fought?"

"Don't be silly!"

The eyes that were so gentle a second ago became dark with fury and I shut my mouth. I was not afraid of him, even if he was bigger than me. But it would be better not to anger the boy. I looked at the stars in the sky, wanting to change the subject, and soon he was looking at them too.

"They are beautiful, aren't them?" he said in a low tone.

"Did you know that some of them are already dead, but we can still see the light?"

"What do you mean?"

"They are so far away, and the light takes so long to come all the way, that what we are seeing already happened a long time ago."

He stooped gazing at the stars and looked at me.

"Really?"

"Really."

"How do you know?"

"I saw it in a book on the library. I asked my dad, and he said it is true."

"You're smart." he stated after some time, looking at me like something had changed.

"I know."

He laughed, I don't know why. Then he extended his hand, like he was older than he looked.

"Seeley Booth."

I extended my hand too, holding his in a grip.

"Temperance Brennan."

We went back to gazing at the stars together.

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><p><em><strong>An:** This is the first chapter. Please let me know what you thought. I first wrote this story in Portuguese, and since English is not my first language I apologize for any mistakes. The story has more then 50 chapters and I`m still writing it. So, depending on the response, I`ll keep translating it or not._

_The first idea for this fic came with a B&B video that I made with the song quoted above, Mary`s Song by Taylor Swift. If you're curious about it, the name is "Booth and Brennan AU - Mary`s Song (Oh my my my)". Yes, I intend to write about the whole song._

_Thank you for reading!  
><em>


	2. Friends

_**A/n:** Thank you for all the reviews, alerts and favorites! It was like a green light for me. I`ll try to update a new chapter every week. I think I can do that, even with my crazy hours and many projects. : )  
>So, let`s play the time traveling game!<em>

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><p><em><strong>Brennan's Song<strong>_

_**2. Friends**_

"Hey, Bones!"

I looked up, annoyed. I hadn't seen Russ' classmate since that day on the tree house. The two of them hadn't even finished their paper. But there he was, hanging on the fence of my backyard, watching me with a smile.

"Why are you calling me that? You know my name!"

"Ah, since you like to dig fake bones I thought this could be a good nickname for you."

I crossed my arms over my chest the best way a seven-year-old could do. I stared at him with an angry expression.

"So you want me to call you _Crying baby_? That's what I remember when I look at you."

He jumped over the fence quickly.

"Shhhh! Don't tell anyone about that, girl!"

"Give me one reason to do that."

"Look, I'm sorry I called you weird girl that day. You're kind of cool."

I kept staring at him, my arms still crossed.

"And smart. Really smart." he completed.

"Ok." I relaxed my arms and sat down again, surrounded by my markers and papers.

"Hey, Bones! I found a hill on the other street that is really cool. Do you want to go for a bike ride?"

I looked at him and noticed how excited he looked. But I was stubborn.

"Don't call me Bones!"

"Come on! Are you coming or not? If you don't want to I can call another person."

I just stared at him for a few seconds. Then I jumped up.

"I'll get my bike!"

I've never had a friend that was a boy before. Actually, I've never had a real friend. The afternoon that we spent together riding bikes was one of the most fun afternoons in my seven years of life. I don't know how it ended the way it ended.

Booth kept calling me by the new nickname the whole afternoon, the more I complained the more he used it. We were trying to jump over the curb with the bike but we couldn't do it right. He said that if he had a pair of springs he could jump over easily, and I disagreed. He said that I didn't know everything and we began to fight. Simple like that.

I called him names... yeah, I called him annoying. And he called me silly. We stuck our tongues out and swore that we would never talk with each other again.

I went back home, shut my bedroom's door, grabbed my chemistry set and played with it until I forgot why I was angry.

A few days later I saw him at school. I was carrying the model of a volcano to the science lab, reason why I didn't see him coming running and stumbling on me.

"I'm sorry, Bones! I didn't mess up with anything, did I?" he asked. Then he stopped, maybe remembering that we promised to never talk with each other again.

"Where were you going so fast?" I said, quickly forgetting about the fight like any kid.

"Outside, it looks like my brother is on a fight with other boy."

"I didn't know that you have a brother."

"Sometimes it would be good not to have one..." he said, waving and resuming the running.

I carefully went to the science lab, putting the model on place. Then I pushed one of the chairs until it was placed below a window. I could hear the kids yelling and cheering outside but I couldn't see anything at first, the bunch of kids in a circle preventing me to see what was going on. The Inspector arrived, asking who had began the fight. No one answered, and she searched the innocent faces, looking for a hint. I saw when Booth pulled a boy shorter than him by his t-shirt. His hair had the same golden brown tone as Booth's. The faces looked alike, except the eyes. Maybe it was because of the fight, but the younger one had something near ferocity in his eyes.

"Damn, Jared! That boy must be three times your size!" I jumped down and went outside to see how the story was going to end. Booth was at a corner with his brother and the Inspector had given up her search for the guilty ones.

"Why did you pull me?"

"Because you were going to get in trouble!"

"You are not dad, Seeley!"

"And you are a jerk, Jared!"

The shorter boy went away marching. Booth turned around and noticed that I was there. At first I thought he was going to yell at me too, but he just looked away.

"Brothers are a pain, huh?" I asked, a little unsure.

He smiled.

"Yeah, they are."

I extended my hand.

"Friends?"

I didn't know why I was worried with that at all. But I wanted us to be friends. I was relieved when he extended his hand too.

"Friends."

Booth showed up at my backyard that afternoon with a baseball ball, bat and glove. I told him that I had never played baseball before and he said he would teach me. I wasn't really interested on that, but when I saw his disappointed expression, I sighed and agreed to go to the field on the other block and throw the ball so he could bat. All the time he complained that I threw too low, or not straight, but he got some good shots and I had fun even when I thought that was not going to happen.

When it was almost dinner time he took a look in his watch, recovered the glove, the ball and the bat, and walked away, saying a casual "Bye, Bones".

"Bye, Booth" – I answered, knowing that he thought it was weird that I didn't call him Seeley like his friends. But if he was going to annoy me with the 'Bones' nickname, I could annoy him a little too.

Nothing had change at school. Booth and I were in different grades, and at recess he was always around other boys, or playing games, so we didn't chat. I was always alone, and to distract myself I would borrow a book at the library. The girls didn't like me that much since the day I showed them a dead frog that I found near the playground. I was the only one that understood how interesting that was

And that's why I began to get anxious to go back home. It wouldn't be long before Booth appeared at my backyard, or the Lab, saying a quick hi and talking about some crazy game idea that he had. My dad had just bought a video game, so Russ would spend the whole afternoon playing it, by himself or with a friend. And I would play with Booth until dinner time when Mom and Dad came back home.

One day he showed up with a rope, saying that we would see who would tie the other one better. I had read a book about sailor knots and obviously won. But I had to call Russ to help me to untie Booth.

"Why are you walking with that Booth boy?" my brother asked me that day.

"Why do you care?"

"I don't like him."

Later I would discover that Russ didn't like Booth because in the first day of Booth's class at our school the two of them had stumbled at the cafeteria and Russ' food flew to the ground. Russ himself fell to the ground. Booth was a little shorter than Russ, but had a sturdier built then my brother, that had always been really slim. Because Russ fell and Booth hadn't even move, it became a joke between the kids for the rest of the week.

We were different. Booth liked sports, and to watch TV. I didn't care about TV, and liked to spend my afternoons reading or walking around the backyard, observing plants and bugs with my little microscope. I've always been fascinated by how things work, even more about how alive things work. But even with all the differences we had fun spending time together, and I could say he enjoyed it as much as I did. With our summer vacation so close I expected for the first time a lot of fun things to happen.


	3. Her family

_**A/n:** Did I say that reviews make my day? Reviews make my day! So don`t be shy, go ahead and drop a note. : )_

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><p><em><strong>Brennan's Song<strong>_

_**3. Her family**_

The summer vacations were getting closer. Booth and I were planning a lot of things, thinking about whole afternoons of games and fun. Before I met Booth, I didn't anticipate the vacations. That would mean that I didn't need to go to school, and I loved going to school. But with a friend to play the boring days were replaced by an infinity of things to do.

It was on summer vacation that we came up with our police game. Booth had watched a movie on TV about a police man and his dog, and he was always talking about it. I found it boring at first, like a boy thing, but when he explained to me how the police man used logic to find out who was the bad guy, I got interested. We would walk around the playground, pretending we were undercover and whispering who we thought was the bad guy. There was a day that we even caught Joe, a boy that lived on my street, stealing Lucy's sand shovels.

My dad was on vacations too. He was a science teacher at school. But once he was at home full time now, it was harder for me to spend the whole afternoon away. I liked to spent time with my dad, he always had something interesting to show me. Even if we were just singing a song or playing a game, it was fun. Before Booth, my dad was my only friend. And that's why he didn't understand why I wasn't spending so much time with him that time.

"Tempe? Come down here, your mom baked a cake."

I stuck my head out of the window of the Lab, looking at my dad down there.

"Come on, Tempe? Cake?" he said, smiling. He knew how much I liked Mom's cakes.

I looked at Booth, by my side.

"Is there anyone else with you up there?" my dad asked, frowning.

I hadn't told my mom or dad about Booth. Russ didn't like him that much, so maybe I thought that they were not going to like him either. I was afraid that they could forbid me to play with him.

I went down the ladders and Booth followed me slowly. Russ was spending the night at his friend's house, Josh, and would just come back in the next day.

"I know you!" my dad said when we reached the ground "You're Russ's friend!"

"No! He's just at Russ's class, that's all." I said, sounding a little more impatient than I wanted to. But Booth wasn't Russ's friend, he was _my _friend. I pulled him by his wrist all the way to the kitchen.

He wasn't comfortable.

"I didn't know you had brought a friend to play." mom said, adding one more plate at the table.

She looked at Booth, and he realized that he needed to say something.

"I'm Seeley Booth, I live nearby."

"Booth? Like in Hank Booth?" dad asked, entering the kitchen and sitting at the table.

Booth shrugged.

"He is my grandpa."

That was the first time that I heard Booth talking about his family and I just realized it at that moment. I knew he had a brother, but I've never heard him talking about his mom or dad.

"Yes, I remember him. Great guy. He helped me one of these days, when I was coming back home and my car broke."

Booth didn't know what to answer, so he remained in silence. I took one piece of cake and put on my plate, and then put another one on his plate.

"Why are you laughing, Matt?"

I looked at my dad, staring at the two of us.

"Tempe never brought friends home before. That's why you were running away from me, huh?"

I eyed my plate, not answering him. Running away was not the exact way to put it, but...

"Tempe, making friends is great. I'm happy that you are learning that."

I made an effort to spend more time with my dad on the following days and he always asked me how Booth was. I realized that he was right, making friends is great.

A few days later, Russ reminded me that brothers can be good friends too. I was ok with Russ for most of the time, but he was older than me, more impulsive, and was a boy. So sometimes we did have fights.

One night I was going to my room when he stopped me in the hallway.

"You're still walking with that boy, Tempe?"

Dad must have said something to him. I thought he was going to complain again, and I was ready to defend Booth.

"You like him, don't you?" he asked, interrupting my fight plans.

"He is my first friend." I admitted after some time of silence.

Russ looked in my eyes, he knew me so well. He knew I was smart and reasonable. But he also knew how quiet and lonely I was around that time.

"I'm sorry, little sister. I'm not going to bother him anymore."

"Just don't say anything at school, okay?"

Russ agreed. Even I could understand that at school, it would be weird for a fourth grader boy to be seen everywhere with a first grader girl. My brother used to remember me that a lot of times, uttering what he called `the code`: At school, you stay out of my way, I stay out of yours, and we're good.

I came back to my room thinking about what Booth and I would do the next day. He was talking about playing hockey with so much enthusiasm that, without even realizing it, I grew excited too and caught myself anticipating the fun. With these thoughts I rested my head on the pillow and fell asleep almost instantly.


	4. His family

_**A/n:** Long time not updating. Well, the thing is, my updates depend on two things: inspiration and response. Since this story is a translation, I don't need to worry about the inspiration part, just the response. I always have a lot of different projects and, if one story doesn't get that much response, I focus on the other ones - Yeah, that also means that I work better under pressure! So I had forgotten about this translation, until **mychakk** came along and put pressure on me. And here you go, another chapter! Thank you for all the reviews, sweetie. :)  
><em>

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><p><em><strong>Brennan's Song<strong>_

_**4. His family**_

Jared was a baby. That's how I saw Booth's little brother. He was just one year younger than me, but I couldn't play with him too long without a fight. Ok, sometimes I fought with Booth too, but that was different.

That afternoon the three of us were playing hockey. Booth insisted that I played too, and even lent me an old pair of his roller skates. I could barely balance myself on top of them so he tried to teach me how to skate. Jared kept making fun of me, saying that he was six and was a better skater than me. But when he was about to show off, jumping from the street to the sidewalk, his foot got stuck on the curb and he fell. He skinned both knees and hands and the crying began.

Booth took off his roller skates quickly and ran to his brother. I followed him. Jared's hands were just a little skinned, but his knees where dripping blood.

"Jared, it is not that bad. I will take you to Grandpa and everything will be fine."

He helped his brother to stand up, pushing him to walk. Then he turned back.

"Can you please grab our stuff?"

I got the roller skates and walked after them. We walked for one block until I realized I didn't know where Booth lived, I had never been to his house even if he was always at mine and said that he lived nearby.

We approached a one story house with an unkempt garden and Booth pushed the door opened. I followed behind, a little lost. It was really different from my house. It didn't have plants or decoration items or landscape paintings. But it was comfortable and cozy.

"Pops?" Booth yelled to a hallway, after sitting Jared down at the couch.

He sighed, showing an exaggerated impatience, and ran to the kitchen, coming back with a bottle of vinegar.

"What are you doing?" I asked, a little frightened.

If I was frightened Jared was scared to death, staring at the bottle in his brother's hands with wide eyes.

"We need to kill the bugs, right?" he asked, unsure.

"Yeah, we need to kill the bacteria. But not with vinegar!"

"And what do you suggest, smart head?

Jared looked back and forth between the two of us, his face a mess with all the previous crying.

"Bring me a bowl with water. And soap."

For one moment I thought he was going to complain that I was being bossy, but then he looked at his brother. Soon he came back with what I asked.

I pulled off Jared's socks and put the bowl full of water under his legs, washing both his knees and cleaning the dirty that had stuck to the wound. He began to cry again, but Booth hold him on place. When I was finished, I looked at him.

"Where is the bathroom?"

Booth guided me there and I took a look at the cabinet under the sink.

"Help me find iodine or peroxide, you must have it somewhere in here."

We looked everywhere in the cabinet until we finally found a little bottle of iodine. We came back to the living room and Jared was still there, silently crying, but with a resigned expression.

We had just finished the process when the front door opened.

"You guys are inside the house in a day like this? This is weird." said the older man, carrying some groceries.

"Jared fell, Pops."

"I can see these skinned knees. What did I say about skating in shorts, young man?"

He laid the groceries on the table and looked at me.

"I haven't met your friend yet, but if I needed to guess I would said it is the Bones that Seeley talks so much about."

"My name is Temperance." I said, making a face to Booth "Temperance Brennan."

"Booth told me you are Matt's daughter. So, are you staying for dinner?"

"Well, I don't know..."

"I am making grilled cheese, there is no way you can say no. I can call your dad and let him know."

He went to the kitchen and Jared followed him, thoughts about grilled cheese probably making him forget about the pain in the knees.

Booth was amazingly quiet, and that was weird. He turned on the TV and kept changing channels while I sat besides him, not really interested. He ended up in a channel with a cartoon about a cat chasing a mouse that made no sense and soon he was laughing with it.

Booth's quietness was even more weird during dinner. His grandfather asked me which grade I was in, and did I do at school. After that Jared began to tell him about our hockey afternoon.

"Tempe doesn't know how to skate!" he said with a mouth filled with cheese.

"Of course I know! I am just not good at it! And you are not that good either, Jared."

Hank laughed with our childish argument, but when I looked at Booth he still had the same expression as before. His grandfather asked him to take me home, and I got the chance to ask him what happened, along the two blocks we needed to walk together.

"You are too quiet, did something happened?"

He shook his head, both hands on his pockets. He looked almost shameful of something.

When we reached my house's front porch, he looked at me.

"You even call my brother Jared. Why don't you call me Seeley?"

I shrugged.

"You still call me Bones."

He smiled, but somehow I knew that was not what was bothering him. Before turning around he said a quick 'Bye, Bones.' and then he was gone.

We would be back to school soon so, in our last week of summer vacation, Russ and I decided to 'camp' in the backyard. We took our sleeping bags to the Lab and stocked it with flashlights and candy. It surprised me that, when Booth showed up at my house that day, Russ asked him if he wanted to join us.

The scene in the cafeteria had been forgotten and even if Russ and Booth were not the best friends in the world, they got along. I think Russ was happy with Booth being my friend at all.

Dad cleaned up a spot in the backyard and made a fire for us. He and Mom sat near the back door, to keep an eye on the fire, and the three of us gathered around it to eat marshmallows and play with shadows.

"I don't know what it is.

"Me neither."

"It is a mouse!"

"It doesn't look like a mouse, Booth!" I said, frowning.

"Of course it does. Look at the paws and ears!"

"You are bad at this, man. Here, it is my turn."

Russ was really good at the shadows game. It was hard for me to recognize the shapes, but when he did it, it was easy.

We finished eating the marshmallows, Dad extinguished the fire and we climbed to the Lab. Russ wanted to tell scary stories, but that didn't excite me that much, so I left the two of them and got in my sleeping bag. I was not sleepy so I stayed there, listening to their whispers for a long time. I stared at the stars, remembering that first night that I had found Booth there. The things had changed so much since then.

I heard the pulling of sleeping bags, and when I turned to see, both of them had lain down already.

"You don't have any facts about the stars today?" so much time had passed by in silence that I thought they were sleeping already, but when I turned around, Booth was looking at me with a sleepy smile. Russ, to his side, was sleeping with stretched arms in weird angles, like always.

I pressed my lips together, thinking.

"It is possible to know the temperature of a star by its color." I said, looking at him with a proud smile.

"You are joking."

"No, it is true. A white star is hot and a red one is cold."

His smile broadened.

"Get real, Bones!"

I frowned.

"I didn't understand that. I am real!"

He began to laugh. I looked at him and he had that glow in his eyes. Again, I remembered the last time we were there and I found him crying.

"What is it?" he asked, noticing that I got quiet.

"Why were you crying that day?"

He knew which day I was referring to. He stared at the ceiling and I thought he was not going to answer.

"Your dad is cool."

"Yeah." I said, not understanding how the two subjects were related.

"That day I was just thinking... how good it would be if I had a dad like that."

Then I understood why he was on the Lab back then. He was watching Russ and Dad.

"What happened to your father?"

Booth shrugged.

"He went away."

I was going to ask why, but he turned his back to me.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore." The glow in his eyes had disappeared and he looked... angry or hurt. I couldn't tell which. I turned too, getting ready to sleep.

But I couldn't sleep so easily. I kept thinking about that. How I had found Booth, looking at the dark window of Russ's room where he and Dad had been talking. How he looked uncomfortable and was so quiet when I went to his house. How he insisted on not talking about that, not mention the subject family. All of that put together should make some sense, but in my seven-years-old mind I couldn't figure what. I ended getting tired and falling asleep.


	5. Patience and trust

_**A/n:** I am amazed by how many people gave me a response! You guys showed me that you really want a new chapter!  
>I am doing my best to adapt the story to English, including some expressions and jokes. If you find something that doesn't look right, let me know and help me improve. :)<br>_

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><p><em><strong>Brennan's Song<strong>_

**5. Patience and trust**

Dad had registered me to a science school program when I entered third grade, so I began to spend some afternoons at a science institute. I would go to their lab with a group of kids and we would make experiments supervised by an instructor. I loved to go there, I would always learn something new. But like in any other place, I didn't make friends or talked with the other kids. And there was this boy that really annoyed me.

He was really smart. But he was also restless and always ended up fighting with another kid.

"Jack! Come to this side, get away from Anthony." We would hear at least once in the afternoon.

There was one day that he was by my side in one of the experiments an whispered that the instructors lied to us and taught stuff that was all wrong. I cut the conversation saying that I wanted to pay attention and he stuck his tongue out. After that a girl with whom I had never talked before said that I shouldn't irritate Jack because he would tell his father, who was someone important. I didn't care.

On that same day something weird happened. Booth had found a large piece of a light wood board at his basement, and came up with the idea of building a cart*. I had never seen one before so he explained to me how it looked like. I remembered my dad had some buckets of paint in the garage and thought we could have fun painting the wood board before cutting it.

We took the wood to the backyard, resting it against the fence, an began the painting. I tried to start with a linear color gradation, but Booth was splashing paint everywhere, crossing to my side of the board. When I complained about it he began to draw space monsters, saying they were going to catch me and eat my brain. We had covered half of the board with paint and were discussing about space monsters when I heard the angry voice of my dad.

"Temperance! What are you doing?"

I turned slowly. I did not see my dad angry often, but when I did he had a logic and fair reason for it.

"Painting?" I asked, unsure.

"Are those my paints? How many times did I ask you not to touch it?"

I looked down, feeling ashamed. I realized that there was paint dripping on the grass, besides some amount covering my sneakers. It was a mess.

That's when I heard Booth's voice.

"Don't hurt her!" he said, stepping forward and putting himself between me and my dad.

My dad stared at him alarmed, and I understood even less than he did. Booth looked really angry, his hand in a tight fist, and he was even shaking. Suddenly my dad's expression softened, like he had realized something, and he lowered his voice as he approached Booth.

"I would never hurt her, Seeley." he put his hands on Booth's shoulders. My friend was still shaking.

Really slowly, my dad hugged Booth and I stayed on the same spot, still not understanding.

Later on that day I asked Booth what was that about, but he ignored me. When I tried asking my dad, he said I should ask Booth about it. The thoughts about it plagued me for a long time, but it would take me even longer to understand the whole situation.

Certain Sunday, when I was helping my mom to bake a cake, I told her how worried I was with Booth and how much I wanted him to tell me what was happening.

"Sweetie, you can't just force someone to open up to you."

"He is my friend, Mom. And even if he is a boy, he is nice, and we talk about everything."

"I know, Tempe. But some things are hard to say and even if he trusts you, he may not find himself ready to share some things with you."

"I tell him everything, Mom." I said, remembering some things that not even my mom knew about, like her glass vase that I broke while doing an experiment I saw on a science book.

"Be patient, sweetie. He trusts you. When he is ready, he will tell you what is going on."

I still thought that being persistent and straight to the point was more effective, but I trusted my mom and decided to follow her advice. I was in third grade now, what meant that Booth and Russ were in fifth grade. In our child's mind, being a fifth grader was like being initialized on something, you were bigger and older than those k-4 kids. The kids up to fourth grade would still run around during recess while the fifth graders preferred to walk around in groups, like they were superior to the rest of us.

I was still the weird-third-grader and didn't have any friends. Sometimes I would meet Jared and he would say hello, but we didn't play together. He liked to climb forbidden places and get in trouble while running away from the inspector, and I didn't see a point on doing that. I liked to watch the classes, seating on the first row and paying attention to what was said. But recess was a torment and when I saw Booth and Russ talking with other boys and having fun, I wished I was a little more like them.

It was in one of those days, at recess, that I discovered more about the subject that Booth didn't want to discuss with me. I was sitting against the wall, watching how a line of ants acted when I interrupted their way or took one of the ants out of the line. I heard loud voices, but that was not something out of the ordinary. There were always a couple of kids arguing at school, it looked like that was part of their recess fun. But what caught my attention was _his_ name being mentioned.

"What's the matter, Seeley? Are you going crying to mama? Oh, I forgot! You don't have one!"

I rose my eyes and saw a freckled boy with sandy hair. He had a friend by his side and Booth was facing them. I knew who was that boy; his name was Tommy and he was one of Russ' friends. Tommy liked to scare and tease the younger boys and I never understood why Russ befriended him.

"Of course you don't have mom or dad, who would want a loser like you?"

This time Booth lost his temper and threw himself at Tommy. I raised instantly. That was exactly what Tommy wanted and I knew what would come next, I already saw that happening to other kids. Tommy's friend, Lucas, would hold Booth so Tommy could hit him. I approached them just when Booth had grabbed Tommy by his shirt.

"Don't be stupid." I said, holding his arm.

I heard Tommy laughing.

"Receiving orders from the weird girl. Is it that bad, Seeley?"

Everything that came next happened very fast. Booth got ready to punch Tommy's face, and I got closer to pull him back. Lucas tried to hit Booth, but I was just getting closer to my friend, entering the route of the punch.

Tommy fell. I fell. Lucas got ready to another punch.

Booth realized what happened: he had hit Tommy, but Lucas had hit me. He kicked Lucas' shin, making him double in pain. With both boys down, he came to me.

"Are you ok?"

I was holding my ribs on the point where Lucas had hit me. It hurt, but it didn't look like a serious injury. I accepted his help to stand up.

At this point an audience had already formed and it wouldn't take long before an adult showed up. Booth put a hand on my back, pushing me away of the mess. I could still hear Tommy hollering:

"Watch out, Seeley! You and your weird girlfriend!"

"I am sorry, Booth." I said, after we were all the way to the school's front steps.

"Why?"

"For breaking the rule."

"What are you talking about?"

"Russ told me about the rule... that I need to pretend I don't know him at school or when he is with his friends, so they don't make fun of him."

"Did he tell you that?" Booth seemed not to believe that. "Look, there is no problem. You saved me, Bones. The punch you got from Lucas was meant to me."

"I just didn't want you to get in trouble. But Tommy is going to give you a hard time now."

"He deserved the punch I gave him." Booth said, seating by my side.

I was going to question him about what Tommy said, but I remembered what Mom told me about being patient. I sat by his side and kept quiet instead. After some time passed with both of us in silence, he simply began talking.

"You know, I feel bad about something." He was playing with the zipper of his coat almost distractedly. "On the day my dad went away I was not sad. Am I a bad person for that?"

He didn't look at me, but I knew I _had _to answer the question.

"I don't think you are a bad person. Why did you not feel sad?"

"He used to hit me." said Booth, his voice so low that I needed to get closer to hear. "I know that parents hit their kids when they don't behave sometimes, but he did that all the time. And he was always angry, and he really scared me."

There was the answer I've been looking for, the fact that made me understand my friend's behavior lately. But I was not happy in finally understanding everything like I would usually be. I was sad for my friend. I still didn't know how to comfort someone, but I had been watching my mom and remembered something she did. I carefully put one arm around his shoulders.

"You are a good person, Booth."

He finally looked at me, and even if his eyes were filled with tears, there was a tiny smile on his lips.

"Thank you, Bones."

* * *

><p><em>*cart - I meant something different from what you are probably imagining. So, I am Brazilian, and invariably brought some of my childhood experiences to this story. The cart I mentioned is something very popular in my country, but I didn't find anything similar in US. It is kind of a mix between a cart and a skateboard. If you want to know how it looks like, copy <strong>carrinho de rolimã<strong> to your google images. :)_


	6. Cart adventures

_**A/n: **Thank you for all the reviews! I try to update as soon as I can, but it is usually on weekends that I have more free time. Like I said before, this fanfic was inspired by a song, so in this chapter we will go back to the lyrics.  
><em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Brennan's Song<strong>_

**_6. Cart Adventures_ **

_And our daddies used to joke about the two of us  
>Growing up and falling in love and our mamas smiled<br>And rolled their eyes and said oh my my my  
><em>

Booth's confession finally made me understand everything that had been happening, like the day my dad was mad at me because of the paint. Booth thought he was going to spank me, but Dad never spanked us. His stare and tone of voice were enough to make us wish we could be invisible.

I was sad for my friend, but I got the sense things were better for him then. His grandpa looked like a nice person and if his dad wasn't, well, maybe Booth was better without him.

My eight years old birthday would be on the weekend and my mom asked me if I wanted a party. I didn't want a party. It would be like last year, the kids of my parents' friends running around and being loud, Russ and his friends untying shoes and switching cups of beverages; and me, stuck at an annoying social event.

I made my parents promise there would be no party.

"Ok. So we will have an innocent barbecue." Dad said, winking at me.

"Can I call Josh?" Russ asked immediately.

"It is your sister's birthday, Russ. She should be the one to decide who comes." Mom said. Russ made a face to me.

I knew that if I didn't let Russ bring Josh over, I would have a hell of a weekend. And it was better Josh coming over than Tommy coming over.

"Ok, you can call Josh." I said, and my dad eyed me suspiciously.

"Are you inviting Seeley?"

"Yes. And Jared too."

My mom and my dad exchanged playful glances. I still thought that Jared was a baby, but after I saved him from Booth's idea of vinegar in a wound, we got along ok. At least he was making an effort not to annoy me.

"I will call Hank, maybe he will come too." my dad said, smiling.

For the first time I really enjoyed my birthday party. No annoying adults I didn't know but had to greet, no squeezing cheeks and comments about how I've grow, no friends of Russ making fun of me.

Hank came with Jared and Booth. He gave me a kit with doll clothes and accessories, but Booth dragged me to the backyard right after that and gave me a poorly wrapped package in what looked like a lunch bag.

"It is my gift to you."

"But your grandfather..."

"That was the gift he bought. This one I bought with some money I saved."

I was curious so I began to unwrap the package. I saw a bag with something dark inside, and it looked like there was some kind of magazine under it. I quickly finished unwrapping it.

It was one of this science magazines for kids, with a gift on the edition - a dinosaur skeleton model to put together.

"You like this palontologist stuff, I thought you would like it" he said, shrugging.

"It is paleontologist. And I loved it Booth, thank you."

We tried to put together the model before my dad could call us for dinner. I organized the pieces by size and began with the biggest one, deducing it was some kind of sustention. Booth was reading the instructions. When he finished and looked up, I had already put together five pieces.

We were spread on the backyard lawn and my dad and Booth's grandpa were chatting by the grill. They must have thought we couldn't hear them, because my dad said:

"Look at the two of them, they get along so well. If they keep going like this, they will grow up and fall in love."

I didn't see sense on the assumption, but all the falling in love story didn't interest me anyway. I saw when my mom rolled her eyes, smiling, the way she did when Dad said silly things. It looked like Booth was not paying attention to their conversation, since he gave me another piece to put together. I raised my eyes again, and his grandpa was watching me with a smile. I quickly focused my attention back on the model.

After we had dinner, Russ, Josh and Jared got interested on my model and the five of us finished it together. My dad snapped a picture of all of us with the finished model, then Russ suggested that we played video games. The four boys jumped in excitement and ran to the living room. I stayed back, disinterested, staring at my model that was so much cooler than the painted sticks I used to play with. I was aimless walking around the backyard when I saw something near the fence.

It was my turn to jump excitedly and run to the living room.

"Booth! I found a dead rabbit!"

He looked at me like there was something wrong.

"Gee, Bones!"

"I was thinking about cutting it open tomorrow, what do you think? It is going to be fun!"

Apparently he was waiting for his turn on the video game. The other boys were so engrossed that didn't pay attention to us. He kept staring at me with that disgusted expression, and my smile began to fade.

"Look, even if it is fun, tomorrow I can't."

"Why?"

"Sunday morning? I need to go to mass."

"Do you go to church?"

"You don't?"

"My parents are not religious."

"My grandpa is, and I am too. So you will need to open your rabbit by yourself."

"I can wait until the afternoon, so we do it together."

"Bones, don't get me wrong. You are a cool friend, but you have some weird interests. I don't like that much cutting open dead animals."

He probably thought I was going to get mad by the way he shrunk, but I didn't. I understood it. We had different interests, but that didn't stop us from playing together and having fun.

"Ok, so I will cut my rabbit in the morning... and in the afternoon we can ride our cart, what do you think?"

The smile on his face spread instantly. After what happened with the paints, my dad helped us to sew the wood boards and attach the wheels to it, but we haven't tried out the new toy yet.

The next day Booth and I were on the same hill that we found out as great to ride bikes. My neighbor Joe was watching us from the curb, after asking what we were doing a dozen times and being ignored. He was four or five, and liked to follow the other kids, asking a question per second.

We positioned the cart at the top of the hill, and Booth once more explained to me how it worked. He sat down first and I sat on front of him. He was taller than me so there was no other way to position ourselves. But that made me responsible for the driving and for some reason he was not happy with that.

Booth pushed forward with his feet, then lifted them and we began to move. The first thing I felt was everything shaking. The quaking was a little worse than the one I felt with roller skates. Then I noticed that the wind on my face and the increasing speed brought me incredible good sensations and I began to laugh.

"Bones, there is a hole!"

There were some imperfections on the road and our cart was dangerously approaching one of them. I forced my feet on the front wheels, leaning my body to the right like Booth taught me. We were moving fast then, and out of the route of the hole, but I had turned too much and the curb was too close. Before I could try to change directions Booth leaned his body to the left, messing up my balance.

The front wheels hit the curb with a frighting thud, but that didn't make the cart stop, it made the cart turn. For some seconds we flew in the air, then I felt the impact with the ground. I felt my hands stinging. I let myself lie down on the warm concrete for some time, listing the sensations. Stinging hands and chin, the hotness and roughness of the concrete against my knees. I pulled the leg that was under the upside down cart. The wheels didn't stop turning yet. I looked around until I found Booth lying down on his belly, the shirt exposing part of his bare back.

"Tempe!" Before I could properly stand up Russ was by my side, breathless. I saw Joe right behind him. The little boy probably run to our house as soon as he saw us falling.

"I am fine." I had skinned my hands and cut my chin, and Mom was not going to be happy with the brand knew holes on the knees of my jeans, but besides that I was fine.

After making sure that I was ok, Russ ran to Booth. I hadn't heard my friend complain, and didn't worry until I heard the _'Oh crap, Seeley!'_ that escaped my brother's lips. When I got closer, Booth was holding his right arm with an anguished expression. I knew he was trying not to cry. Noticing the weird angle of his arm, it was easy to tell it was broken.

"Russ, call Dad, quick!"

I didn't need to ask again, he already left running.

"Are you ok, Bones?" I could care less about how _I_ was feeling. But even when he was a kid Booth always had this gentle and altruistic manner.

My dad finally arrived. He didn't ask anything, just took a quick look at the turned cart and my skinned hands. He took Booth to our house, asked Russ to call Booth's grandfather and explain what happened, then put Booth in the car. I entered the car as well, sitting on the back seat, and my dad didn't say anything. During the short trip to the hospital I heard Booth make this muffled growl with his throat once or twice, to what my dad answered _'We are almost there, everything is going to be fine.' _with the same soft voice he used with me when I had a fever.

When we got to the Emergency Care one nurse took Booth in, and after she came back, she insisted that I followed her. I said I was fine and just wanted to see my friend, but she wasn't satisfied until she treated all my cuts and bruises. She talked with me for some time, all the senseless talk adults have to distract children. After what it looked like forever, she took me to an examination room with two beds. Booth was sitting on one of them with a cast on his arm, my dad by his side. His grandpa was talking with the doctor.

As soon as he saw me, Booth smiled, a smile that I got to know pretty well. I smiled back to him. That meant he was fine. Near the spot where the doctor was there was an alight window with an X-ray sheet, and I got closer to see it. I had never seen a real one, so I thought it was really cool that I could distinguish the white spots against the black background.

"It broke twice, Booth!" I said, excited.

"Yeah, Bones. That is amazing." he said in a grumpy tone. The adults stopped to watch, and I saw my dad refraining from laughing.

I didn't understand why they were so amused, so I kept talking.

"But it is amazing. Look at it, you can see really clearly.

"Do we have a future doctor here?" the doctor asked, watching me with a smile.

"I don't want to be a doctor." I said, still looking at the X-rays "What's the name of this bone?"

"Humerus."

Later when I went home, I ran to my dad's office looking for a book about bones, muscles and organs I knew he had. I flipped the pages filled with colorful pictures for some time, and ended finding the bone that I had pointed to the doctor. When I met Booth after school on the next day, I began reciting all the bone names I've learned. He looked at me with an amused expression, but patiently waited until I was finished.

"Really cool, Bones. Now let's stop talking? I got a new video game cartridge and even without using my right hand I am going to beat you!

I smiled. I was not good at video games, but I was not going to let him win just on the argument. I followed him inside, still smiling.


	7. Getting into trouble

_**Brennan's Song**_

**7. Getting into trouble**

_Take me back to the house in the backyard tree  
>Said you'd beat me up, you were bigger than me<br>You never did, you never did  
><em>

The fact that Booth and I defied Tommy brought us consequences. In the weeks that followed the episode we were not left alone. Tommy or Lucas would follow one of us during half of recess, saying mean things. They would make our backpacks disappear, stretch their legs on front of us to make us trip and tell everybody that the weird third grader was the transferred fifth grader's girlfriend.

"If I didn't have this cast, I would give him another punch!" said Booth, after Lucas passed running, taking his sandwich from his hands.

We were seating together at the cafeteria. Since Tommy began to pick on us that some of the boys that used to talk with Booth had been avoiding him, afraid that Tommy would pick on them too. I was distracted, watching another line of ants going up the cafeteria's wall when I had an idea.

"Booth, we should take revenge on them!"

He looked at me.

"This expression means you had an idea, Bones."

I really had had one. As soon as I told Booth, he laughed.

"What is this?" I asked, staring at his left hand closed in a fist, pointing at my direction.

"It is kind of a greeting, you know? You do it with friends. Knock it!"

I looked at him, unsure, then closed my hand in a fist and knocked it against his.

"Gee, Bones! You are supposed to knock it lightly, not punch it!"

My plan was simple. I had an ant farm, that I used on last year's science fair. All I needed to do was put some ants on a jar and take them to school. We could sneak in the classroom during recess and release the ants inside Tommy's backpack.

I carefully put the jar on my backpack Monday. It was one of the few days I couldn't pay total attention to class, too distracted with what Booth and I would do later. I met Booth by his classroom's door when everybody was outside and we entered the room in silence. We almost had a heart attack when a group of kids passed on the hallway, running, but we completed our mission. There was a chocolate bar on Tommy's backpack and we threw it inside a notebook, pouring the ants on top. As soon as we reached the hallway again, we lean against the wall, laughing nonstop. It was the first time that I deliberately broke the rules doing something like that, and I discovered that the fear made things more exciting. We knew he would pay back, but we were ready. Or we thought we were.

On Wednesday I was carrying a heavy pile of books that the teacher asked me to fetch. I was about to descend the stairs when I saw Booth coming up.

"Hey, Bones! Do you need help?"

"No, it is ok."

"Let's play baseball today?"

"But you have a cast on your arm! And you know I am terrible at shooting!"

"It is pitching, Bones. I can pitch, and I will teach you how to bat."

"Hmm. Ok."

"See you later, Bones."

I began to descend the stairs and the bell rang. The kids that were on the hallways began to run to their classrooms, and I thought that if I hadn't stop to talk with Booth I would be at the classroom already.

I heard a thump behing me and stilled, then turned around carefully.

Tommy was laying on the floor, his face flushed. Booth was sitting on top of his legs, pressing his head against the floor.

"Coward! I never thought you were like that!"

I watched, astonished, Booth's fit of rage. I had already seen him angry, but not like that. The hallways were empty now and when I saw the inspector approaching, I knew things were about to get bad.

"Seeley! Get off of Thomas, now!"

"He was going to push Bones! I saw it!" Booth yelled, slapping the boy's head before standing up.

"Who is _Bones_?"

"He is talking about me."

The inspector looked at me, lifting her glasses.

"Is that true, Temperance?"

"I... I don't know, I didn't see anything."

"Ok, both of you to the Principal's office, now! Temperance, go back to your class."

I did what she asked, giving the books to my teacher and seating down. I didn't feel good. I didn't want Booth getting in trouble, worst yet, because of me. I knew Tommy would pay back, but I didn't think it would be like that.

The class dragged itself and when it was finally over I ran out of the classroom. Russ was waiting for me.

"Tempe, what happened? Everybody is saying that Booth beat Tommy up and you almost got in the middle of it and went to the Principal's office.

I stared at him, mad.

"That is not true, Russ. How Booth would beat Tommy up with a cast on his arm?"

"Then why is he on the Principal's office waiting for his grandpa?"

I told my brother exactly what I saw and he listened, not interrupting me.

"Do you think he was really going to push you down the stairs?"

"I don't know, I had my back to them. But Tommy is mad with us."

"Why?"

"Because he was mocking Booth for not having parents, then Booth punched him and he got mad. Then he began to follow us everywhere, making us trip, saying mean things, and then we put ants on his backpack and..."

"Hold on, Tempe. If Tommy was annoying you so much, why didn't you tell me?"

"It is our problem, Russ. I got myself into it when I tried to prevent Booth from punching Tommy."

"I am your brother, remember?"

He suddenly moved away from the wall he had been leaning against, and walked away.

"Where are you going?"

"To talk with Tommy."

I stayed on the same place, thinking if I should go to the Principal's office to see Booth, as I wanted, or follow my brother. I ended up going after Russ.

We left the school building. Tommy was leaving with his older brother, the two of them walking to the car. Russ ran, calling the other boy's name and making him turn. I approached carefully, not knowing what Russ had in mind.

"Hey, Tommy! I heard you have been tormenting my baby sister!"

"You believe what the kids are talking around, idiot?"

"It was not from any kid that I heard it. She was the one that told me."

"Russ, your sister is not right on the head. She must be making it up."

"It happens that I believe her."

"Hey, are you going to believe her and not me? You are the one that always said that she is weird and didn't look like your real sister."

Russ looked back, checking if I was hearing. He shifted his weight, bothered, then looked at Tommy again.

"Who cares, Tommy? Everybody says silly stuff about their siblings! But family is family, and you crossed the line!" Russ was yelling now and some of the kids that were leaving stopped to watch. I saw Tommy's brother leaning against the car and watching with interest.

Russ threw himself against Tommy and the two of them fumbled on the ground. I ran to help my brother, but Tommy's brother got there before me and set them apart. There was more people gathering to watch. Tommy stood up with a hand covering one of his eyes and Russ with a bloody nose. I stared at my brother angrily. First Booth, now Russ. Didn't they know that I could take care of myself?

Later, when Russ and I were with our heads bowed in the living room, my dad giving a speech about how to solve problems in a smarter way, I asked myself how it got to that point. I had never been involved on these kind of things before. But I realized that I was happy with the upshot. Tommy got what he deserved and wouldn't annoy us anymore. Russ saw who the boy really was and wouldn't be his friend anymore.

"Russ, go to your room. I want to talk with Tempe."

I looked up, surprised. Russ gave me an apologetic look before running upstairs.

"Temperance, I am a little worried with you. I had never see you behave like that, it was the first time I got a call from school concerning you."

"It is not my fault that Tommy was driving us crazy!"

He sat on the couch by my side.

"I know and I am not saying you can't defend yourself. You know what I always say, you can and should defend yourself. It is just that..." he sighed "Seeley is a nice boy, but he has some problems going around and it looks like it is hard for him to control his anger. He is bigger and older than you and sometimes I am afraid he can hurt you."

"What? Booth? No, Dad. He would never hurt me."

My dad kept staring at me with a blank expression.

"Never, Dad. He beat Tommy up, but it was to defend _me. _I already told him I can defend myself, but he doesn't listen"

He opened a tiny smile.

"Fine, sweetie. But please, try to stay away from trouble, ok?"

Two days later when we were spread over the Lab's floor on a lazy afternoon, I told Booth the conversation I had with my dad.

"You know I would never hurt you, right? Even if you say things I don't understand and brag that you are smarter than me."

"I know, Booth."

He was playing with a kaleidoscope in his hands. It was a big and colorful one that I got for my five years birthday. Booth had never seen one before and now went everywhere with mine, pointing it to every ordinary object.

"Today there is a Jetsons marathon on TV. Let's watch it?"

"What is that?"

"Oh, come on Bones! The cartoon? The family that lives in the future?"

I turned my head to look at him, confused.

"_Meet George Jetsooon."_

_I began to laugh with his lame singing. He dropped the kaleidoscope._

_"We are going to watch The Jetsons right now, and we are just stopping when you can sing the whole intro with me."_

I laughed an followed him. His joy was really contagious. And even if he had lost his temper and hurt Tommy and worried my dad, I knew I didn't need to worry. Because we were friends and I trusted him.


	8. Just two kids

_**A/n: **Hello, hello! Today I bring you a really special chapter. I needed to write something with the next lines of the song the fanfic was inspired on. I was happy with the result after finished, and it became a dear, sweet chapter to me. I also quote the lyrics of another song by the end of the chapter - because I think those lyrics fit the ending moment pretty well, and give you a hint of what to expect next. But also because when I wrote this chapter I was listening to a lot of The Killers, and that was a song I listened while writing it. So, enjoy!  
><em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Brennan's Song<strong>_

_**8. Just Two Kids**_

_Take me back when our world was one block wide  
>I dared you to kiss me and ran when you tried<br>Just two kids, you and I...  
>Oh my my my my<em>

The sunlight bathed the backyard, drawing long shadows all around. It was the end of the afternoon, the time that I loved, even more in the summer. It was that mild hour after I had done my homework and before Mom and Dad came home from work. Booth and I were sitting on the low wall by the grill. He was telling me a joke he heard, but I had other things on my mind.

"Then the tomato says..."

"Kiss me."

"What?!"

"A kiss. I heard two girls talking about it and I got curious."

Booth stared at me like a second head had just popped out of my body.

"A grown up kiss? In the... lips?"

"Yeah."

"No, Bones. It is so gross!"

"We will never know if we don't try. It is just an experiment, Booth."

"A gross experiment."

He kept staring at me for a long time, and I kept waiting for his decision.

"Just once. And you are not going to tell this to anyone." he said, holding a finger up for emphasis.

"Deal."

He shook his head, like he thought that was a terrible idea, but he stretched his legs and sat closer to me. He stayed a long time just looking at me, like he was unsure. Then he puckered his lips like any kid does to kiss, and got even closer.

I don't know what happened with me at that moment. It was a simple experiment, and I was the one that proposed it. But when I saw him getting closer, I panicked. Maybe I thought he was not going to accept the challenge and I could mock him for being a coward.

Before he could properly kiss me, I stood up and ran.

"Tempe?" I heard Russ pushing my bedroom's door and I looked up from my little dolls.

"What do you want, Russ?" I said, quickly going back to my activity - order all the little models of animals by size. I wanted to look really busy so he would go away.

"It is just... I was on the living room when you stormed upstairs. And I saw Seeley leaving. Did you guys fight?"

"No." It was not a lie.

"Tempe, he didn't beat you, did he?"

"No! Why would he beat me, Russ? Did daddy say something to you?"

"He just asked me to keep an eye on you..."

"I mean it, Russ. Booth would never hurt me. And if he does, I will hurt him back."

My brother smiled. Maybe he still remembered when I was four years old and hit him with a doll.

"Come here." He came closer to hug me, lifting me up and making my legs bounce, away from the floor. He would do that sometimes, knowing that would make me laugh. "You know that when you have problems at school or anywhere else you can just call me, right?

I nodded.

"So, what did you do to poor Seeley?"

"I asked him to kiss me, but then changed my mind and ran away." I sat back on the floor and resumed playing with my little dolls.

"You what?" My brother's voice came out higher than usual and I looked up. He had the expression _"You are my sister, but you are crazy___."__

"It was just and experiment that didn't work."

Russ didn't say anything else, but he still had a shocked expression when he left my room.

I wondered if I had to apologize to Booth or something like that. I didn't see why. It was not like I did something wrong, was it?

The next time I saw him was at school. Since we didn't have Tommy following us around anymore, Booth's old friends were back to spending time with him. Sometimes I would see him with Russ and Josh. Now that Russ didn't walk around with Tommy anymore, he would even stop and talk with me at recess.

I was sitting on a bench, a book about people around the world on my lap. I was distracted on a really interesting part, about Aztec families, when I sensed someone sitting by my side.

"Hey."

"Hey." I answered without looking up. I knew who it was.

"Why are you mad at me?"

"I am not mad at you. I am just reading."

"Well, I am mad at you."

I looked up.

"Because of the experiment?"

"Why did you run away?"

"I had something to do."

"Liar."

"I am not!"

"You are so bad at lying."

"No, I am not."

"Oh, yeah? So what would you do if I kissed you right now?"

"You wouldn't do it, there is a lot of people around."

He lowered his shoulders, and I knew I was right. Before standing up, he said:

"It is not cool to run away, Bones."

When I saw him that afternoon, I was afraid he was still mad at me. But it looked like the things were back to normal, because I defied him to a swing challenge and his answer was running ahead of me to get to the swing first.

Russ and I had hang a swing on the backyard tree and when our parents were not looking we liked to swing as high as we could and see who would go higher. It was the swing challenge. We could have hurt ourselves with that game, but as kids we didn't see the danger. We thought our parents were just trying to cut our fun with all the _'don't swing so high, you are going to fall'__._

"Do you think that if we swing really really high, we can make a loop?" Booth asked, his legs going up and down with the movement of the swing.

"I don't know." I admitted, giving him a push. "But I think I don't have strength enough for that."

"Your dad wouldn't agree with this experiment, would he?"

"No. And since when you like experiments, Booth?"

"I like experiments. If you don't make a fool out of me."

The swing came up, but I didn't push, thinking about what he was saying.

"The last experiment, Bones?" he said, looking back at me.

He was still not ok with that story, so maybe I needed to apologize after all.

"I am sorry I ran away and made a fool out of you, Booth." I said, almost in a mechanic way.

He stuck his feet on the grass, stopping the swing. For one terrible second I thought about him not forgiving me, yelling with me and saying we wouldn't play together anymore. But then he shrugged.

"I forgive you."

I was so relieved that I laughed. And before he could even understand what happened, I quickly and quietly kissed him on the lips. I looked at him smiling. He looked at me astonished.

The kiss experiment was performed and the conclusion was that it was not that gross at all. The subject was left aside and we didn't mention it anymore.

At school, after all the confusion with Tommy, some kids insisted on annoying me. What did I do? Defended myself.

"Tempe, why did the mom of a girl named Amy called me today?"

I dropped my pencil, looking at my mom with an innocent expression.

"I kicked her."

"And you kicked her because...?"

"Because she said I was silly and didn't know how to play then stole my color pencils and ran away."

My mom sighed, tired.

"Matt, this girl has your genes for sure."

"Ok, Christie. When they do good at school, they have your genes. But as soon as they start to get into trouble, they have mine."

"Of course. We complete each other, remember?"

I stopped writing for a moment to watch my parents. Mom was finishing cooking dinner and Dad was setting the table. He was holding a pile of dishes, but was so distracted watching Mom that just stayed there. The two of them looked at each other for a few seconds and I didn't understand. It was nice to watch, but weird. Like it was past my bedtime and my dad turned off the TV, saying that was not a thing for me to watch.

Footsteps echoed through the house coming from the hall, and soon I saw Russ and Booth entering the kitchen running. I focused back on my notebook. Booth was going to spend the night, reason why my mom baked a pie for dessert.

"Russell Brennan, look at you!" my mom said. Both Russ and Booth's clothes were filthy. And both of them couldn't stop laughing.

"We chased a raccoon, Mom."

"I thought you were going to play basketball."

"It was after the game. Seeley caught it."

"Why would you want to chase the animal?" my dad asked, and I stopped pretending I was just interested on my homework.

"It was a bet the other boys did." Russ answered, still smiling. "Seeley won it."

_Boys._

"And my prize for you is a long shower. Go upstairs, the two of you. Russ, use the master's bathroom so Seeley can use the other one."

The two of them went upstairs, both laughing, and I looked at my parents. They exchanged a smile.

"I am sure this behavior comes from you, Matt."

Years later, when that time had passed and my life had changed, I would surprise myself remembering this little episode. It was like I wanted to ensure myself that I had a happy childhood, to recall that I knew what was the feeling of family.

It was the best phase of my childhood and, if I really think about it, one of the best phases of my life. For three years Booth and I saw each other almost every day. We made up games, climbed trees, played all kinds of games, got injured, fought, argued, laughed. But like everything else in my life, that changed abruptly.

Booth was thirteen years old, I was eleven. We were sitting in the lab at the end of the afternoon, our legs swinging far away from the ground. Then he said he had something to tell me. I could be terrible to read other people, but at that point I could read Booth pretty well. I knew something was bothering him on the past week. But I had learned the patience lesson my mom taught me, so I waited until he was ready to tell me what it was.

"Bones, we are going to move."

I saw him lowering his head, not looking at me. He played with his shoelaces instead. He would do this kind of thing when he was uncomfortable.

"Where are you moving to? A house close by?

"No. We are moving to another city. To San Francisco, with Pop's brother.

The understanding finally hit me. He was going away. Far away.

"But I... Booth, why?"

"He said things are a little difficult. It is not easy for him to raise Jared and I only with his retirement payment. His brother has a store in San Francisco and Pops thinks things will be easier there.

I just realized I was crying when a tear slipped down my face.

"It is not fair, Booth. I don't want you to go."

He finally looked up.

"I don't want to go either, but it looks like there is no other way. It had been a while since he talked about it, he said it would be the last choice."

I dried the tear, just to wet my face with another one.

"Look, I will call you whenever I can. And letters, I will send you tons of letters." he got closer, hugging me in a clumsy way. "And we can see each other during vacations, we can spend some days at each others' house."

I gripped his shoulders, hugging him back, knowing he was trying to be nice. But it wouldn't be the same without him. Nothing would be the same without him.

"I will miss you so much, Booth."

"Me too, Bones."

He let me go, so he could stare right into my eyes. I looked at those chocolate eyes, the twinkle I knew so well.

"I will come back, Bones. Even if it takes a long time and I need to grow up so I can take a bus by myself and work. But I will come back."

_Boy, one day you'll be a man  
>Oh girl, he'll help you understand<br>Smile like you mean it  
>Smile like you mean it<em>


	9. Winds of change

_**A/n: **I had a hard time translating this one, maybe because there is a lot of description. But it is an important transition chapter, I hope I did a good job.  
><em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Brennan's Song<strong>_

_**9. Winds of change**_

_"I will come back, Bones. Even if it takes a long time and I need to grow up so I can take a bus by myself and work. But I will come back."_

Two weeks later I said good bye to my friend. And even if he did send me tons of letters full of space monsters doodled on the corners and lines like _'I will send you Jared by mail if you don't answer this letter' _and even if we did meet once or twice, when my dad or his grandpa agreed with the trip, it would take a long time for me to feel whole again. At the day we parted, he left me with a missing part. But it took me a long time to notice I was feeling incomplete and to understand why.

"Temperance Brennan?"

I raised from my chair to get my biology test. A+. I saw some of the other students giving me the not so friendly stare. Most of the class did so, but I didn't care. It had been a long time since I learned not to care. High School was hell, and even if I enjoyed learning, I was kind of happy when it was time to leave school. I looked at the test once more - I didn't study much for it, just did a quick review. For someone that knew by heart all the names of bones and muscles by fourteen, that test was almost stupid.

I looked at the window, wishing that my brother was out there. I was too old to play the Marco Polo game, but it wouldn't matter. Not if I still had Russ and things were as they used to be. I had never realized how important my brother was to me until I didn't have him anymore. And that brought me back another memory.

I dropped my head. _No, do not think about Booth!_ My first and only friend. I hadn't seen him in three years, and I was probably the one to blame. He used to call me more often than I called him, but on the past six months we didn't talk to each other. It was painful to think about him because it reminded me of everything I once had, but lost.

The bell rang and I walked to the hallway, dragging my feet. I was quickly outran by the other students that were entertained in loud conversations. I had been transferred to that school some weeks before, even if we were in the middle of the semester. It was just like my old school: lots of noisy teenagers, athletes talking about sports, girls talking about boys, and me, apart from everyone.

If school was a nightmare, I didn't want to think about home. Or rather, the house where I was currently living. Maybe I could sit near the football field and read the book I had borrowed. Maybe this time my foster parents would forget to look for me.

"Hey, Brennan?" I raised my eyes. A girl with Asian features and a beautiful wavy hair was looking at me. She was tall, and she was wearing a creative combination of clothes that looked really good on her. Strikes of blue on her dark hair completed the look.

"Angela." I had seen some of her sketches in a school exhibition another day, complimenting them without knowing that the author was by my side.

"I just want to say that the suggestions you gave me really helped... let me show you what I am working on."

I wasn't used to that. Someone spontaneously having a chat with me, not looking at me twice or calling me weirdo. She got her sketch book from her bag and showed me some sketches of faces that looked like other students'.

"You are really good." I said, impressed. I was really smart and had read a lot about bone structure. But she could capture the essence of someone with a drawing, and that was amazing.

She was going to say something, but two girls called her from the end of the hallway.

"Sweetie, I need to go. But I will see you around!"

She smiled and turned around, leaving me alone in the hallway. I took a book from my backpack and headed to the football field.

We were in April. If I was in another place and another time, I would be excited with spring – the warmer weather, being able to go out without tons of clothes on. But not Temperance Brennan, High School student. Not Temperance Brennan, the girl living with the third foster family in four months.

I opened my book. I had decided that I wanted to study Anthropology. With my grades, it wouldn't be that hard to finish school and get a scholarship. The only problem was to survive school. I would never confess this to anyone, but I felt really left away at school. It seemed like no one shared the same interests that I had and they preferred to talk about subjects so meaningless to me that I barely understood what they were talking about. Maybe in college things would be different.

Some girls ran to the field, squeaking excitedly, making me lose my focus. One of them was holding up a sign, walking in the direction of a group of boys. Probably something about the basketball team.

Even I knew about the basketball championship. Our school's team was in a good position, fighting for leadership with the stronger team of the state. I just knew that because anywhere you went on that school you would see signs about it or hear people taking about it. I hoped the championship would end soon, so the other students would stop singing rhymes on the hallways or yelling _'Black Panters'_ at unappropriated moments.

My attention was diverted again, but this time in another direction. The High School was placed right behind the Elementary School. Through the fence I could see a noisy group of kids running on their recess. My eyes focused on a little girl, stretching her legs as she went higher and higher on her swing, and the little boy that pushed her. Without really noticing it, I was smiling

By the end of the afternoon there was no way to postpone returning home anymore. I was going down the stairs to the street when I heard someone calling me.

"Brennan?"

I turned around and a boy ran in my direction, his curly locks bouncing as he approached me. It had been some time since I last saw him, but I hardly forget a face. He may had grow up and change, but the basic structure of his face was still the same.

"Hodgins?"

"Girl, look at you! High school, huh?"

I agreed with a nod. At least he didn't try to hug me.

"What do you want, Hodgins? It has been some time since I last saw you."

"I've been looking for you because I have an offer, Brennan. You left the Project without an explanation, and the supervisors couldn't reach you anymore."

"What is the offer?"

"The Institute released a new project called Junior Scientists." said Hodgins, getting excited as he explained "Basically, they want teams of students developing scientific projects. They let you use their labs and you can ask for the help of teachers and researches. The teams will produce a paper and the best projects will get prizes."

"That is great, but I still don't understand why you are after me."

"Every team has to have at least one member from a public school. Since Zach and both study in private schools, we need a third member from a public school."

"Zach?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Long story. So, do you accept it or not?"

"Sure!"

"Great. The meetings are gonna be in the Institute, Tuesdays and Thursdays after class. Next week I will bring you the apply forms."

I walked down the street thinking back on my conversation with Hodgins. We were never great friends, around the time we were on the kids project together I barely talked to him and just did a few experiments with him as my pair. He used to be always on edge when he was a boy, but I couldn't deny the fact that he was really intelligent.

By the end of the conversation, when I had asked him why he decided to ask me to join his team, his answer had brought a smile to my lips.

"You are the best."

Of course I am.

The week passed by just like any other. I was happy I came back to the city were I grow up, a small city in Virginia. The last foster family I had lived in Baltimore, and even if I had thought, at first, that going to a new place would help me start from the scratch, I soon came to realize that anywhere I went I would be seen as the weird one.

My solution was, once more, to sink in books. Books were good, they were always the same, they made sense. They were not complicated like people, that could change sides or opinion, and disappoint us. That's why when I had a foster house with more three or four other noisy kids, with foster parents that thought we were good just to do housework, I sought comfort in a book. I would shove myself under the bed or stay at school until late and force myself to learn a new subject. When I mastered it, I would congratulate myself. I knew I was intelligent, and since there was no one to congratulate me for my victories, I would do that.

When my foster parents from Baltimore said they had too many kids and couldn't take care of me anymore and the social worker brought me back to my hometown, I wasn't happy or sad. It didn't make a difference, it was just another foster home that would probably not last, just like the others.

Michael and Lauren were a couple on their forties, with an adult son. At least they didn't have so many kids at the house, there were two more boys besides me. Arthur and Leon had almost the same age, but they were younger than me. They were really energetic. The first time they tries to mess with me, I made them ran so quickly that I didn't see them for the next two days. Since that time, they kept to themselves and I kept to myself, one not getting on the others' way.

The house was never silent. The two boys were as noisy as possible when they were playing and Michael and Lauren were loud even if they were just having a conversation. Sometimes I would crawl under the bed with a tape recorder and forget about the world.

The things I took with me when I left home fit in a box. Among these things there was the tape recorder, that had belonged to Russ. I also had some of my dad's tapes with old songs. I didn't like to think about my dad or Russ, but when I closed my eyes and listened to those songs, it was almost like everything was right in the world again. And the songs muffled the noises of the house.

In the middle of this mess my life had become, the girl from school, Angela, was a surprise. Not just that day after class, but many times after that she spontaneously started a conversation or shared an opinion.

"Why do you ask my opinion about your sketches? I am really bad at art." I said certain day. We were sitting on the low wall on front of school and she had two new drawings.

Angela smiled.

"You are honest, Brennan. I ask other people's opinion and they cover me in compliments just to make me happy. You are not like that. If you think my drawing is weird, you say it. And you even point exactly which bone or muscle should be changed to make a face look better." she said, smiling

"I am really bad at lying. That's why I am honest, If I tried to lie you would never believe it."

Angela laughed an I began laughing too after some time. I didn't understand what was the funny part in what I said, but her smile was so big that there was nothing else I could do but join her. When we finally stopped laughing and caught our breathes, I thought about how long had it been since the last time I had laughed like that. Oh, well. It was better not to think about that.


End file.
